‘The Last of Us’ Episode 6 Review: ‘Kin’ Brings Joel to a Crossroads
Pedro Pascal (Joel) in HBO’s The Last of Us.
After the traumatic ending to last week’s episode, it was important that The Last of Us give the viewers a bit of a break from the misery (well, within reason), and it did just that with Kin.
It’s difficult to get into this episode without a spoiler of some kind, so I will just say that those who played the game will likely understand exactly what the episode title is referring to here. The episode essentially brings Joel’s journey to a crossroads; he reaches a point of no return here. Does he want to see it through to the end with Ellie, or will he call it a day and head home? Does he follow his heart or give into his fear?
Ellie isn’t the only character Joel gets to interact with though, and each conversation he has reveals a new layer of complexity to his personality and relationships. This episode shows us more than ever that Joel is permanently scarred by the death of his daughter, and his inability to move on is stunting his ability to make meaningful connections with other people even when he wants to. When characters give him good news that he would have been delighted about pre-apocalypse, he now retreats inward. Rather than be happy for others, he focuses instead on what he lost. It means we spend a lot of the episode in Joel’s head, though we still get the odd scene through Ellie’s POV as well.
The events of the episode are just as well told as they are in the game, if not even better thanks to the added depth and complexity to certain relationships, but the only criticism I have is that I don’t think the bond between Joel and Ellie is quite as strong as the show wants you to think it is. I still don’t feel like they’ve spent that long together, even though they met four and a half episodes ago and several months have passed in the story.
It certainly is at this point in the game, but the show hasn’t given us quite enough time with the pair, or as many strong dramatic beats to solidify their relationship yet to make their current dynamic feel 100 percent earned. It’s close certainly, but I would have appreciated an extra episode to focus on their bond. That, or cut Melanie Lynskey’s character arc altogether from the last two episodes to focus more on Joel and Ellie, but that would be at odds with the show’s overall theme.
It’s a minor quibble that I find easy enough to look past, and everything else about the episode is at just as high a standard as the rest of the season. It’s also the lightest episode we’ve had for a while, even if it does end in dramatic fashion. Strap in from now on folks, it’s about to get heavy.
Spoilers ahead…
Pedro Pascal (Joel) and Bella Ramsey (Ellie) in HBO’s The Last of Us.
Before we get to the meaning behind the episode title, the episode kept us with Joel and Ellie travelling through the countryside. A humorous conversation with a Native couple led us to believe some dangerous people lurked on the other side of the big river to the west, and then we spent more time with the pair of them travelling. We see along the way that while Joel still has an icy wall up inside, it has clearly melted a lot when it comes to Ellie.
Their relationship is friendly most of the time now; Joel almost sounds like he’s thinking of sticking with her once they reach the Fireflies. She’s also learning new things from him now on how to stay alive. When Joel wakes up one morning, instantly realizing he overslept, he finds Ellie has been taking watch. He chastises her for it, but she points out that she did all the things he taught her. He has no response other than to reprimand himself, which plays into his newfound fear of not being able to protect her, just like he failed to protect Sarah when it really mattered.
This fear is taking the form of anxiety attacks, of which he has a couple in this episode. He doesn’t trust himself to have what it takes; when the patrol from Jackson surrounds them and tests them for bites, he freezes. We hear the white noise in his ear getting louder as his fear that another little girl is going to die on his watch gets closer to materializing. Pedro Pascal’s acting is top notch, and the scene is superbly directed as we get an intense close-up on his face.
Gabriel Luna (Tommy) in HBO’s The Last of Us.
As anyone who played the story likely guessed after seeing the episode title, Kin reintroduced us to Tommy. The show did a great job at making Gabriel Luna look older than in the prologue, and it’s genuinely heartwarming to see the two brothers reunited. Tommy looks startled to see Joel again, and I was surprised that their slow run toward each other didn’t come off as cheesy at all.
However, those happy feelings begin to fade away after a couple of awkward conversations and old animosities begin to surface. Tommy has moved on, and he’s dismayed to see that Joel is still the same man he left behind years ago. When he introduces Maria as his partner, Joel doesn’t even smile, clearly reflecting on what he lost before the apocalypse. When Tommy goes a step further and announces that they’re having a baby, Joel almost seems unhappy about it.
Pedro Pascal (Joel) and Gabriel Luna (Tommy) in HBO’s The Last of Us.
Tommy rightfully calls Joel on it in a later scene, but there is one thing he and the viewer notice about Joel. When he talks about Ellie, it’s clear he believes now. He’s become the very thing he used to ridicule Tommy for, but he’s telling the truth when he tells his brother that Ellie holds the cure for infection. It’s that belief that Tommy responds to when he agrees to take Ellie the rest of the way to the Fireflies.
Maria, for what it’s worth, comes across as a likeable enough person and a strong leader — as she is in the source material — but I didn’t care for her distrust of Joel. She hypocritically points out that Joel has done some bad things, conveniently ignoring that she forgave Tommy for doing a lot of that stuff with him, which Ellie points out.
Rutina Wesley (Maria) in HBO’s The Last of Us.
Ellie is all in with Joel, which leads to disappointment when she overhears him talking to Tommy about taking her off his hands. Their confrontation in the bedroom is almost word for word what happens in the game — though I was disappointed that Pedro Pascal didn’t get to tell her she was “on mighty thin ice” — and it’s just as emotionally charged as in the source material. It’s clear that while that wall Joel’s raised has nearly come down, it’s not all the way yet. When Ellie tries to bring up Sarah, he cuts her off immediately and is quite harsh with her afterwards. It’s an important moment that reminds you they still have a way to go if they are to develop a father-daughter relationship.
Thankfully, Joel changes his mind after a good sleep and comes to his senses. Ellie finds him waiting for her in the stables and takes him back without hesitation.
Pedro Pascal (Joel) and Bella Ramsey (Ellie) in HBO’s The Last of Us.
I was surprised they managed to fit in the university at all given everything that happened on their trip to Jackson, but they did a good job squeezing that in. They even included the monkeys! As in the game, they discover that the Fireflies left the university for Salt Lake City a long time ago, and right after that, they’re attacked by a band of raiders as they try to escape.
Joel is critically wounded after getting stabbed in the abdomen — a slightly less gruesome injury than he gets in the game — and after they escape their pursuers, he falls from his horse after losing a lot of blood. We end the episode with Ellie tending to him, begging him to get back up. It’s not quite as emotional a moment as the end of the third and fifth episodes, but it’s a hell of a cliffhanger to end on, marking another strong episode of The Last of Us.
Josh is a huge a fan of Star Wars, superheroes and video games. He spends most of his time wondering who would win in a fight between Boba Fett and Star Lord.
